Several copending patent applications, commonly-assigned herewith, are descriptive of tamper-indicative systems for bottled and like goods, namely, application Ser. No. 441,109 filed on Nov. 12, 1982, Ser. No. 443,608 filed on Nov. 22, 1982 and Ser. No. 450,531 filed on Dec. 17, 1982. Common to such systems is the use of a see-through cap which has tines movable with the cap and in secured engagement with a telltale nested in the cap. In the '109 application, when the is threaded upon a container, the single-layer telltale thereof is secured by adhesive to the container mouth. With the telltale accordingly secured to both the cap and jar, it is ruptured by the tines as the cap is removed from the container providing visible indication of initial container opening, or of prior tampering.
In the system of the '608 application, the tine are blunted upon the undersurface of a single-layer telltale after passage therethrough and a single-layer container, sealing layer is secured to the periphery of the telltale under the blunted tines and is secured also to the jar container mouth upon application of the cap to the container. In this arrangement, the telltale is ruptured in situ above the sealing layer as the cap removed. telltale fragments, if any, are thus precluded from entering the container by the in-place sealing layer and may be removed from the liner before it is peeled away to permit access to the container contents.
In the '531 system, the telltale is a laminate with an opaque compressible layer in engaged relation to the cap tines and a glassine sealing layer having a telltale indicator on its surface facing the compressible layer and sealable to the container mouth at its opposite surface. In this case, the telltale indicator is rendered visible as the tines tear through the compressible layer as the cap is opened. Fragments of the compressible layer may be removed and the glassine layer then stripped from the container to gain access to its contents.
While the above described systems provide effective tamper indication, they do not accommodate what shall be termed "the alternative user preference", which requires both (1) that the telltale and sealing layer be removable with and be fully contained, including telltale fragments, by the cap upon its removal from the container and (2) that there be an adhesive or bonded seal between the cap liner and container access port up to the point of initial opening.
The retention of cap liners with the cap during cap shipment and cap application to containers is a present industry practice, as is shown, for example, in Dukess U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,819,460 and 3,917,100. A circumferential groove is formed in the cap immediately beneath the cap top panel above the cap threads. In commercial practice, the liner is force into the cap and nests in the retention grove. In practice described in the referenced patents, the liner includes a compressible layer which is said to be displaced radially outwardly of the liner into sealing relation with the groove wall as the cap is threaded upon a container. In both the commercial and the Dukess patented practices, tamper indication is not involved and there is no anchoring of the liners to the container mouth, as by adhesive or other bond.
Some approach is seen to partially realizing the alternative user preference in Waring U.S Pat. Nos. 2,131,774 and 2,131,775. In the tamper-evident systems of these patents, a telltale is nested in a metal cap adjacent a centrally open top panel, through which telltale destruction is seen on initial opening or upon prior tampering, and the telltale is removable with the cap, being secured to an underlying liner or to the cap. Apart from the deficiency of this approach from a security point of view, e.g., its telltale tearing members are accessible to a tamperer through the cap opening, and the customized character of the cap, the Waring patents expressly disavow any form of adhesive or bonded securement of the cap to the container, requiring that no adhesive bond exist between the cap and container. Accordingly, requirement (2) of the alternative user preference is not met.